Gardening As an Art Form – More Than Food Alone
What we do in life expresses who we are, and that’s just as true in gardening as in anything else. A garden is an art form, and tells a lot about the person who designed it. It’s not all in the toil and sweat. Sometimes you have to step back a little to appreciate what’s really there.
What Goes Into Gardening
There’s nothing spur of the moment about gardening. Before you ever touch the soil with the intention of beginning your garden, you need to plan it out. Sitting back peacefully and becoming a bit introspective can lead to some of your most brilliant ideas.
It all depends on your ideals, whether a preferential layout to you is just a flower layout or if it’s shrubs, plants and/or trees around water elements with aquatic plants.
Whatever you come up with, you’re observing some basic practices followed by artists of every field – artistic or otherwise. They too must contemplate logistics, planning small or grand ideas at least roughly before they jump into the creative process.
Expressions of the Gardener
It’s interesting how many garden themes you find when viewing other people’s properties or work. They all developed different ideas, experienced various “revelations” (the “ah ha” moments) and so created accordingly.
After pondering options and developing a picture in their minds of what they want the finished product to look like, gardeners gather the tools they need – along with their plants – and set out to make a dream become reality.
Everybody has a favorite color, and for some gardeners that’s green. (It is definitely my favorite, not only for its own beauty, but for what green represents. No, not money. Rather, spring and summer.) The true artists know how to green things up without creating monotony. They might design layouts such as zigzag walkways with stones and colorful plants lining them.
It is when you sense magic in the air that you know a great artist has left his/her mark. Some people know simply where to put everything so that they too are enmeshed into the artistry of their design, a perfectly balanced natural scene. It’s a wonder just looking at some of their jaw-dropping work.
Last Thoughts
In the same way that few painters are outstanding, while others are good, and most have at least a little talent, there are gardeners who have little interest in the beauty of their work beyond the sheer pragmatics of growing food to harvest and eat.
They see a plant and stick it in the ground, giving little – if any – attention to the greater scheme of the creation.
So fortunately there are artists to be found in gardens, and then there are the uninspired gardeners who work alongside them. The only way you can tell the gardening artists is to look at their work – and the twinkle in their eyes.
